Improving Your Bottom Line with an Authentic Corporate Culture

The popular buzz phrase for many companies is “corporate culture”, which is increasingly becoming more important in the race for top talent and performance. A well-defined corporate culture is the personality of a business to the outside world. Above the mission statement and vision plan, the corporate culture determines the way in which employees and clients view the company as a living, breathing organism.

Developing an Authentic Corporate Culture in a Changing World

Social networks, business reviews, and industry associations have created total transparency in the corporate world, making it more important than ever before to have a great corporate culture. There’s no “faking it” anymore. In order to rise to the top, every business needs to focus on its own corporate culture as a way to leverage the business and improve the bottom line. Creating a more authentic corporate culture, based on community values and business ethics, is a good start.

How Corporate Culture Influences Business Productivity

Why would a company spend so much time concerned with developing a positive corporate culture? One of the biggest advantages of having a corporate culture that is authentic and positive is an increased ability to attract the best candidates to your doors. These are the top performance candidates that your business needs to stay ahead in a competitive market. According to Dan Schawbel, the managing partner of Millennial Branding, “If you have a strong culture, people will not only want to work for you, but they won’t want to work for anyone else so it’s well worth the investment of money and time.”

Having a real corporate culture that is positive and productive means the business can perform at higher levels, based on the quality and strength of your employee population. The culture of your organization is based on a collective effort, shared by your team and this influences the way they interact with each other and the outside world. When done well, this improves team cohesiveness, facilitates leadership, and encourages motivation. A corporate culture aligns the entire company with its unique values and goals. All of these factors combined make for enhanced loyalty and productivity from all employees who are actively engaged in the corporate culture.

Elements of a Successful Corporate Culture

There are several elements of a corporate culture that is authentic and productive. These are the factors that forge the uniqueness of your business, and make it a great place to work and innovate.

Shared values and vision for the company – In order to be effective, a corporate culture must be designed around a common vision for the company. This is the foundational building block of a successful culture; one that is based on the values of the company.

Standards of work and performance – As part of the business culture, having certain policies concerning daily work standards helps to increase productivity. This requires buy in from the leaders of the company, with continual reinforcement of the cultural norms.

Employee management and development – Recruitment and employee development efforts should be aligned with the corporate culture if it’s ever to be successful. From the moment that candidates encounter the business to the onboarding, training and experience of each employee, this corporate culture is a big part of what makes people stick around.

Communication of corporate culture – The final element in a successful corporate culture is the message that is sent out there on a regular basis about your company. This comes down to the values, the people, and the commitment to excellence that makes your company a great place to work for and do business with.

Developing a corporate culture takes time and careful planning, but when done right, it can be the single most important aspect of being an employer of choice.

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Tess C. Taylor

Tess C. Taylor CPC, PHR, SHRM-CP; Senior Blogger and Social Outreach for PayScale, is the Founder of HR Knows, a corporate content, consulting, and career coaching firm in New York; and the Founder and Managing Editor of The HR Writer, a popular blog in the Human Resources and Recruitment scene. She has worked in HR for nearly 2 decades, having spent many of those years working in the corporate sector for the Benefits Technology, eLearning, Environmental, Health care, and Manufacturing industries. Her work is regularly featured at About.com as the Employee Benefits expert, ADP Thrive, Business.com, PayScale’s Compensation Today, Dale Carnegie Institute, HR Gazette, HR Magazine, Social-Hire, and US News Careers. Voted by peers as a ‘Top 100 HR Experts to Follow on Twitter’, Tess continues to share insightful conversations that engage and educate people about important issues that affect the workplace. You can follow Tess on Twitter @HRKnows1